Google has stated that it is in the process of restoring data to accounts affected by a bug that wiped out email and chat history for some Gmail users. The number of user accounts wiped out by the bug has also been revised down again, this time from 0.08% of Gmail’s user base to 0.02%, or roughly 36,000 accounts. Google apologized for the mishap and the company insists that no data was lost as a result of the bug. Some user accounts have already been restored, the company said, and the remaining accounts should be back to normal soon. Google says the bug was caused by a storage software update it began deploying over the weekend. As soon as engineers were alerted of the issue, they stopped rolling out the update and reverted back to the old software. More →

Google confirmed on Sunday that a major bug has mysteriously deleted the entire contents from within roughly 150,000 Gmail accounts. Google initially reported the problem to be more widespread, but it revised its initial estimate down from 0.29% of total Gmail user accounts to 0.08%. According to user reports, email correspondence from within affected accounts was deleted earlier this past weekend. Affected users were initially unable to log in to their accounts, and then found that their data had been deleted once access to the accounts had been restored. Accounts were essentially reset, with years worth of emails and chats having seemingly been erased. Google appears confident that the lost data will be restored, however, and it notes that users will be unable to access their accounts while engineers address the issue. “Google engineers are working to restore full access,” Google noted on its Gmail status page. “Affected users will be temporarily unable to sign in while we repair their accounts.” More →